Welcome to the Weighted Lottery!
COVID-19 River Update, Oct-7-2020. Since June 14, 2020 Grand Canyon National Park has been in the first stage of a phased opening of the Colorado River. This phase will continue until park leadership and health officials mandate otherwise. From mid-June through the first half of September total launches were reduced to 75% of Colorado River Management Plan (CRMP) limits. The park also offered trip leaders, either who had their river trips cancelled by the park or who chose on their own to cancel due to COVID-19 concerns, the opportunity to defer their launch date by exactly two years. This offer remains available to all trip leaders with trips scheduled to launch through the end of May 2021 (but only for those trips won in lotteries before April 2020). Now that we are in the slower river season, the Superintendent has authorized the River Office to resume normal CRMP limits and launch patterns through April 2021. Consequently, we are once again holding follow-up lotteries to re-release previously cancelled launch dates. Anyone who applies in a follow-up lottery is expected to be aware of potential COVID-19 risks and, as a result, awarded launch dates cannot be deferred. River trips are expected to adhere to health guidelines, not share river camps, limit size of gatherings, avoid tribal lands, and carefully monitor all trip members. (details at https://grcariverpermits.nps.gov/pdf/COVID-19_River_Update.pdf)
For status updates regarding open and closed areas of Grand Canyon National Park visit https://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/grand-canyon-national-park-public-health-update.htm
Lotteries
- CLOSED: 2021 Follow-up Lottery, 1-21-2021
- Jan 19, 2021 - Jan 21, 2021 12pm MST
If you have a profile, login:
...or, if you have never visited this site before, create a profile.
Anyone applying for a noncommercial Colorado River rafting trip (or listed as a PATL on one) must have a profile in this system!
There are three ways to know a lottery has opened.
- in your profile, opt-in to receive email notifications
- subscribe to our RSS feed
- follow us at www.twitter.com/GCRiverPermits (opens in new window)
Use this website to submit lottery applications for noncommercial Colorado River rafting permits:
- Create and manage your user profile, which contains your contact information, points, river trip history, and all lottery applications you've submitted or are listed on.
- Create and submit a lottery application for a noncommercial (private) river trip when a lottery is open.
- Pay lottery application costs.
In addition, you may also use this website to:
- Opt-in to receive notifications via email of upcoming lotteries.
- Make changes to your pending lottery application at any time before the lottery closes.
- Monitor the status of your pending lottery application, i.e., make sure payments were successful, verify Potential Alternate Trip Leaders (PATLs) have confirmed their PATL status, and double-check your lottery application.
- Find out whether or not your application was successful in a lottery.
- Fill out and submit your noncommercial river permit application, complete a trip participant list, and pay permit costs (if you won a launch date in a lottery).
For more information about the weighted lottery visit www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/weightedlottery.htm (opens in new window) or contact us at 800-959-9164 or 928-638-7843 (8am-noon MST, Mon-Fri) or grca_riv(insert the at symbol here)nps(insert a dot here)gov.
Permitting Process Overview
The following is a quick overview of the permitting process. A more detailed description of each step in the application and permitting process is given here.
Step 1: Create a profile. All persons listed as either a trip leader or a Potential Alternate Trip Leader (PATL) on a river lottery application must have a user account (profile) in this system.
Step 2: Login and create your application. Once you have a profile (and a lottery is open), you can login at any time before the lottery is run to create and submit a lottery application.
Step 3: Submit your completed application. All PATLs listed on your application must login to this system and accept their PATL status before the lottery drawing date; PATLs failing to do so will not be included in your lottery application.
Step 4: Pay launch year lottery application cost. A completed application is not active until costs are paid. Lottery applicants are required to pay a lottery application cost once per launch year. Once an application cost has been paid for a launch year, you can apply in all later lotteries for that launch year for no additional fee. Pay the lottery application cost through this website.
Step 5: Lottery occurs on designated date. After the lottery, you will be notified of the success/failure of your lottery application by email. You can login at any time to view the status of your lottery application. If you win a launch date, you pay a trip deposit.
Step 6: Complete a river permit application, draft trip participant list, and pay final permit costs. If successful in the lottery, you will complete a noncommercial river permit application and pay your river permit costs. You will also submit a draft trip participant list. All of these are done online through this website. (detailed cost information can be found on the FAQ page at How much are permit costs?)
Step 7: River permit is issued. When the above steps are complete, the Grand Canyon River Permit Office will issue your river permit.